Grand Coulee man sentenced on additional charges

A Grand Coulee man received a sentence of 50.5 months in prison to go along with an earlier sentence of 29 months in a Grant County Superior Court case last week.

Melvin Toulou, Jr., 43, pleaded guilty to four counts — trafficking in stolen property in the first degree; unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree; burglary of the Vlachos estate building on Spokane Way, and trafficking in stolen goods taken from the Vlachos property.

The state agreed to the guilty plea, and Toulou received a 101-month sentence, with 50.5 month of prison time and 50.5 months under Department of Corrections supervision.

Toulou had received the 29-month sentence from a car prowl and possession of stolen goods incident in August 2016. He was convicted on that incident in March this year.

He appealed that sentence, claiming he was treated unfairly, but in court last week he withdrew that claim.

In another incident where Toulou was arrested at Safeway earlier this year, for the potential burglary of a rental house, he pled guilty to possession of methamphetamines and one count of assault in the third degree of a law enforcement officer. The state agreed to dismiss some of the charges in this incident, and Toulou was sentenced to 51 months, to run consecutive to the 29-month sentence and concurrent (at the same time) to the earlier 50.5 month sentence.

In all, Toulou has received 79.5 months of prison time, and 50.5 months under DOC supervision.

In the Feb. 10-12, 2016, burglary of the Moe Evans house in Grand Coulee, the state agreed not to charge Toulou with additional prison time in exchange for his guilty plea in the other cases.

Toulou had also faced charges in Lincoln County, but the charges were dismissed when Toulou testified for the state against a defendant who was later convicted on a firearms charge.